Kartguy's Message Board: fire prevention tips!

fire prevention tips!

Posted by kartguy on 7/30/2007, 12:55 pm

I was not there but, one of kartguy's kart detectives told me the fire mishap at Mosport was from side impact and a fuel line was pulled off and allowed fuel to spray onto the hot header.
This kind of impact will always happen.
A way of reducing the chance of this type of fire would be to make sure NOT, I repeat NOT to use plastic tie straps to hold fuel line on to fuel pumps ,carbs or gas tanks.
Although it is more difficult to learn the art of wire twisting, the use of a twisted approx. .089mm steel safety wire is much sturdier in these areas of fuel line connections.(picture to come)
There are also special tools made to help wire twisting.(click below)

When running the fuel line along the lower part of the chassis, use electrical tape in place of tie straps. (picture to come)
Tie straps easily snap when they make contact with the pavement if we have to head for the grass!
Vinyl electrical tape will keep your fuel line connected to the rail even when scraped on the edge of the track.
Make sure all fuel lines are of these standards to help kart fire prevention.
And also important:
Do not use excess fuel to make up weight.
And make sure your pipe and header are wrapped properly with the proper header wrap with No lose strands. (picture to come)
The overflow from your fuel tank should also have a capped plastic container to catch the fuel that will spill out when a kart is upside down.(picture to come)
This will eliminate the chance of more fuel splashing on the hot headers and pipes.
The small amount of fuel that is in the float bowl
would be the only available fuel to leak out if a kart is upside down.
Next time you have no oil in your engine, get a buddy and hold your kart upside down and do a fuel leak test.
And give tug on your fuel lines to test there strength and seal.
(No smoking while doing so)
Asn should be mandating this kind of safety stuff! No?